"Kentucky's Executive Branch Ethics Commission charged former Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes and Erica Galyon, her top deputy, with violations of Kentucky's ethics laws last week, following an investigation.

[In the first count, Grimes is accused of misusing state time and resources by directing her subordinates to download and store information from the Voter Registration System onto flash drives for a personal, private purpose without following the established processes of government to obtain the information. In the second count, she is accused of using state time and resources to engage in political activities prior to the 2016 election.]

"In a separate initiating order, Galyon, while Assistant Secretary of State, is accused of directing staff of the State Board of Elections to provide documents to Grimes' private legal counsel that were in an Open Records request, while denying those same documents to an Open Records request from a member of the media.

"The Commission order states, 'The request from the media was for the same documents that had been previously provided to Grimes' legal counsel. In addition, the documents that were provided to the news media were altered by adding page numbers and watermarks, while Grimes' personal counsel was not.'"